"Popping out" dents

[Mastiff]

This is actually about my Tacoma, not K5, but it's pretty general. I have a minor dent on that truck on the rear quarter behind the tire. The paint is good and there are no creases. It is also easily accessible from the back side. It seems to me it should be easy to push it out from the back and save the paint. They have the whole paintless dent removal thing after all, which seems to have at least some success, even when you have to pull the dent out from the front side.

But I've been talking with a body guy and he insists that the repair would require paint since the existing paint will crack. I don't know how he intends to fix it, but I guess it's not old fashioned body work. It's worth maybe a few hundred bucks for me to not have this dent, which ain't happening if there is painting involved.

What do you guys think? I'm tempted to just go after it myself, but I'd rather leave it alone if I'm going to crack the paint. Somehow the dent was created without cracking the pain though.

 

[mrk5]

I would think that if the paint didn't crack when the dent was made, it would not crack when popping it out. If it's not creased, I think you should be okay. Maybe post a picture.

 

[Mastiff]

 

[doubletrouble]

Take it to someone that’s good with paint- less dent repair and see what they say. I’ve seen some pretty crazy dents get removed without having to paint but I’ve also seen some that looked easy that they can’t get out. A lot of times it depends on how much it stretched the metal and if it’s on a body line. It’s hard to see the dent in your pic.

 

[1300obo]

FWIW, We have a high mileage tundra that my son drives and we've taken a few dents out with hot water and the suction cups. We've also hammered pretty good on one on the rear quarter. Toyota paint is apparently hard to crack because his never did

 

[Mastiff]

I got it mostly popped out myself. I got a 2x4 about the right length to lever against the frame and just kind of forced it out and smoothed it out as much as I could. It's got a few ripples still in it but you have to look pretty hard. Paint seems fine. I heated it up a bit with a heat gun first, but I don't think that really mattered.

I really wish I could find a body shop that would be willing to do "good enough" work like this. I'm sure an old fashioned body guy could make this nearly perfect by just massaging it, but they all want to do perfection these days and milk insurance companies.

 

[MEMO43]

I've used the suction cup pullers on a few dents on my 2000 GMC with good success

 

[dyeager535]

Hell I used a toilet plunger on a huge dent that'd been in my door for years. Figured I couldn't make it worse. Didn't cross the body line at least.

Besides a very slight wrinkle at the very bottom of the door, can't tell it was ever dented. Couldn't believe that A) it worked after only two or three attempts and B) that it came out as good as it did.

 

[centexk5]

Steel has a memory and as long as it’s not creased, it’ll pop back out.